The issue is that the Movie/TV/Book(and music?) content industry hasn't grokked what works and why. Books are a bit different, I'll grant, due to the fact that the form factor is different (not everyone has en e-book reader, for example, and reading long prose on computer screen isn't that easy)...
Steam for video games seems to be what people LOVE. The game players LOVE the hell out of Steam (for the most part). Make offers (as you do: free on Kindle). I think a fragmentation of the market (Hulu, Netflix, etc...) hurts things in some ways. I don't think you are part of any big publishing cartel, and if so, then the solution has to come from that cartell. MPAA/RIAA (and book publishers) need to get their shit together instead of treating the consumers like villains. Read the successes of indie-game companies who go on Steam. The majority of that success comes from deep discounting. A single platform allows for a nice way to announce such discounts.
I make a variety of media products and hope someday to get paid for my own product. I imagine you're a bit further along on the professional bit, so I can understand why it's frustrating.
I think we agree that the industry is backwards.
I sadly don't have an answer for making an income off of art. I look at my moderately successful friends in music (they've played at SXSW, NXNE (in Canada), and done national tours, and are slowly moving up into bigger territory) and i see that they still have to hold down their dayjobs while continuing to bust their ass touring and creating).
The "luxury" of the cartels is that they give you money upfront but then you live in servitude. Kickstarter and other crowdsourced methods of funding are one potential avenue of growth, though I imagine it depends on what the product is.
Anyways. Hope you can achieve "success' in whatever manner that means for you. The life of an artist is a tough lot!
no subject
Steam for video games seems to be what people LOVE. The game players LOVE the hell out of Steam (for the most part). Make offers (as you do: free on Kindle). I think a fragmentation of the market (Hulu, Netflix, etc...) hurts things in some ways. I don't think you are part of any big publishing cartel, and if so, then the solution has to come from that cartell. MPAA/RIAA (and book publishers) need to get their shit together instead of treating the consumers like villains. Read the successes of indie-game companies who go on Steam. The majority of that success comes from deep discounting. A single platform allows for a nice way to announce such discounts.
I make a variety of media products and hope someday to get paid for my own product. I imagine you're a bit further along on the professional bit, so I can understand why it's frustrating.
I think we agree that the industry is backwards.
I sadly don't have an answer for making an income off of art. I look at my moderately successful friends in music (they've played at SXSW, NXNE (in Canada), and done national tours, and are slowly moving up into bigger territory) and i see that they still have to hold down their dayjobs while continuing to bust their ass touring and creating).
The "luxury" of the cartels is that they give you money upfront but then you live in servitude. Kickstarter and other crowdsourced methods of funding are one potential avenue of growth, though I imagine it depends on what the product is.
Anyways. Hope you can achieve "success' in whatever manner that means for you. The life of an artist is a tough lot!